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Archive for the ‘Venues’ Category

The 2016 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books begins Saturday, April 9, at 10:00 a.m. and continues through Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the University of Southern California.

The Festival is a wonderful opportunity to mingle with hundreds of authors, attend panel discussions with bestselling novelists and industry experts on writing and the publishing business, and enjoy live music, visual art, and cultural entertainment by some of the world’s most creative and celebrated artists.

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Presented annually by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the Writers Studio brings together a community of writing students to workshop with some of Southern California’s most esteemed professional writers and teachers.

Participants select one of ten intensive four-day workshops in creative writing and screenwriting planned for the 2015 Writers Studio, including The Joy of Writing: A Workshop in Craft and Creativity, Writing the First Novel, Writing the Young Adult Novel, Accessing Your Stories in a Flash: A Short Fiction Writing Workshop, Writing the Personal Essay, and Writing the Memoir. Enrollment is on a first come, first served basis, and each class is limited to fifteen students.

The Writers Studio fee of $940 includes enrollment in one four-day workshop February 5-8, a continental breakfast on Thursday, a special Saturday guest speaker event, and a Sunday reception.

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The 2014 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books begins tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and continues through Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the University of Southern California.

The Festival is a wonderful opportunity to mingle with hundreds of authors, attend panel discussions with bestselling novelists and industry experts on writing and the publishing business, and enjoy live music, visual art, and cultural entertainment by some of the world’s most creative and celebrated artists.

Like this:

American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality Gary Edward “Garrison” Keillor was born on this day in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota. While perhaps best known as the radio host of A Prairie Home Companion, Keillor is also the author of more than a dozen best-selling books, including Lake Wobegon Days (1985), Leaving Home (1987), and Homegrown Democrat (2004), a collection of political essays.

Keillor is also known for his articles and essays in The New Yorker, Time, and The Atlantic Monthly. In June 2005, he began a syndicated newspaper column called “The Old Scout,” which addressed political issues. The column ran at Salon until April of this year and is currently on hiatus so that Keillor can focus on other writing projects.

On November 1, 2006, Keillor opened Common Good Books on the corner of Selby and Western in St. Paul. Hailed as “a treasure trove of quality books” and “a book lover’s paradise” (Clara James, About.com Guide) in the cozy, well-hidden basement of the Blair Arcade, the independent bookstore invites its patrons to settle into a comfy chair with a cappuccino and a classic novel or collection of poetry and wile away the afternoon.

Common Good Books, Blair Flats, St. Paul, Minnesota (photo by Bobak Ha'Eri, August 2009)